Few things in aviation strike more fear in my heart than an arrival to a non-towered airport when a fly-in breakfast is underway!

Common sense rules governing airport traffic patterns:
 

Use your radio:	Begin making position reports within 10 miles of your destination airport.  Be sure to use appropriate navigational references.   "Anytown Airport, Nxxxx is 10 to the north, inbound runway 24, Anytown Airport."  Do not reference your position to some locally known landmark!  Other arriving or departing pilots may not be familiar with such landmarks. Update your position report when 3 miles out.
Listen to the ASOS or AWOS:	Knowing the winds at your destination airport is a critical ingredient in determining the likely runway in use and your entry into the traffic pattern. If no ASOS or AWOS is available at your destination airport, check the ASOS/AWOS at the next nearest airport to your destination.  Also, call the local Unicom frequency an request traffic advisories.
Look out the window:	Many of today's glass cockpit aircraft make it tempting to use the electronic moving maps to zero in on the destination airport.  That's fine as long as we spend most (90%) of our time looking out the window for the airport and for other traffic.
Make a proper traffic pattern entry:	You can enter the traffic pattern at any leg, e.g., join the crosswind, downwind, base, or final.  The important thing is that you enter the pattern at the TPA (published traffic pattern altitude).  Descending into the pattern is both bad form and very dangerous!
Keep your patterns tight:	The purpose of the traffic pattern is to be seen by other arriving and departing aircraft.  Using giant patterns as if you were a B-747 arriving at O'Hare defeats this purpose! Ideally, traffic pattern legs should be no further than 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the runway.  A good rule of thumb is to always be close enough to reach the runway from any place in the pattern if your engine suddenly fails.

Good traffic pattern work is the mark of a proficient pilot.  More importantly, it is a necessary ingredient to safe flight.

What about right-of-way issues?

Yes, the private pilot Practical Test Standards require that we know who has the right of way in any given encounter.  While you may know who has the right of way, the other guy may not.  Thus, for safety sake, always make room for the other guy.

If you are on final and somebody else is turning base in front of you, give way.  If you are turning from base to final and another guy is converging on a straight in final, give way.  If you feel offended, take it up with the other guy ON THE GROUND!

What about practice instrument approaches during VFR conditions?

Instrument instructors and their students are sometimes oblivious to other VFR traffic in the pattern when practicing approaches to non-towered fields.   Remember always, IFR traffic does not have priority over VFR traffic.  Traffic is traffic regardless of which rules we are operating under!

This problem becomes particularly serious when the IFR final approach course is oriented opposite to the runway in use.   Here, the arriving IFR flight is nose-to-nose with departing VFR traffic.  Watch out!

IFR position reporting:

Instrument pilots think in instrument terms.  VFR pilots think in VFR terms.  So how does a VFR-only pilot react when the arriving IFR pilot announces his position as follows:

"Anytown Airport, Nxxxx is procedure turn inbound on the VOR 24 approach, , circle to land runway 8, Anytown Airport."

Huh?

Proper phraseology would be:

"Anytown Airport, Nxxxx is 7 miles to the north, inbound for runway 8, Anytown Airport."

Having spent hundreds of hours helping instrument students get comfortable on the gauges in the turbulent clag, I have come to the conclusion that the yoke creates more problems than it solves!

Hapless instrument students literally man-handle the control yoke in death grip fashion to force the dancing needles into compliance.  They push, pull, yank, and bank as their airplane reacts to shearing winds and convective bumps. 

The picture isn't pretty and the ride can be terrifying!

Try flying the "no hands" approach!

Coming around for a second or third try, I instruct my students to fly the approach without touching the yoke.  Huh?   They think I'm nuts!

Not believing that it can be done, I offer to demonstrate the procedure.  I begin by requesting a vector for a long final approach leg.  While cruising outbound, I set the power for low cruise speed, then trim the aircraft for hands off flight.  This is the most crucial part of the process.

I then respond to ATC's vectors to final with slight toe pressures on the rudder pedals.  Altitude is controlled with power.  No hands are placed on the yoke.  It is as simple as that!

"Nxxxxx, turn left heading 310, maintain 2,500 feet until established on the localizer, you are cleared for the ILS Runway 28 approach."

Again, only slight rudder pressures are required to turn and intercept the localizer.  Once established, I wait for the glideslope needle to slowly descend to the center of the VOR or HSI head.   I keep the wings level and the localizer needle centered with the rudder pedals.

When the glideslope needle centers, I reduce power by 300 RPM (or 5" of manifold pressure).  The airplane responds by gently descending at the rate of 500 feet per minute.  I add or subtract power as necessary to keep the glideslope needle centered.

There is no getting around the fact that the ONLY way to become a proficient pilot is to get out of the practice area and into the national airspace system!

This is particularly true for instrument students as my student, Dennis Porebski, (pictured left in his Turbo Arrow) knows.  Here, Dennis is sitting on the ramp this past week at Washington D.C.'s Dulles International Airport.

Aside from getting comfortable operating in and out of the world's largest airports, adventure trips like this expose pilots to the real world of instrument flight.   Our trip home, for example, involved extensive maneuvering around thunderstorms and turbulent skies.  Enroute deviations, frequent coordination with ATC, and fuel management are just a part of long cross-country flights.

Trips like this are also great fun.  Dennis and I spent the afternoon having lunch and touring the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles.  Flight training should not only be instructive, it should also be entertaining!

If pressed to identify the single one control factor leading to serious mis-adventure in the clouds, it would have to be . . . overbanking!   Often caused by momentary pilot distraction, overbanking, unless corrected, naturally worsens until a full-blown spiral results!

Why does overbanking worsen?

A simple fact of aerodynamics explains overbanking tendency. 

The outside wing on a turn travels faster  than the inside wing.  With more speed, the outside wing generates more lift than the inside wing.

At any given airspeed, aileron pressure is no longer required to maintain the bank.  If the bank is allowed to increase from a
medium to a steep bank, the radius of turn decreases.  The lift of the outside wing causes the bank to steepen even further.  Unless opposite aileron is applied, the bank will continue to steepen.

As the bank angle increases, the vertical component of lift is dramatically reduced.  The nose drops and more altitude lost.  A corresponding increase in airspeed  results.

The first thing the pilot notices is the increasing sound of wind passing over the airframe and an unwinding of the altimeter.  Hoping to solve the problem by pulling back on the yoke or stick (instead of reducing bank angle), the hapless pilots draws himself into an ever tightening spiral! 

The tragic JFK, Jr. maneuver

This scenario is believed to have been the cause of JFK, Jr. crash in July, 1999.  Caught in declining visibility at night over open water with no visible horizon, Mr. Kennedy may not have noticed that his airplane had begun to bank. 

Without his intervention, the bank steepened, the nose dropped.  Mr. Kennedy pulled back on the yoke to restore lost altitude, and a grave yard spiral resulted.  This condition is unrecoverable in IFR conditions.

When JFK Jr. crashed, the news reports stated that the rate of descent was 4,700 feet per minute. Any experienced aviator knew immediately that it was the graveyard spiral, the only maneuver allowing a descent rate of that magnitude (unless the airplane lost one or both wings). 

Even a clean airplane would, with inherent stability, attempt to level itself with increasing airspeed, requiring the pilot to apply an incredible amount of force on the control yoke to attempt diving at 4,700 feet per minute. The airspeed would quickly be at the red arc (Vne). The graveyard spiral is the often the fate of the disoriented pilot in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions).

The solution . . .

The solution is an easy one.  When in IFR conditions, never allow the airplane to exceed a standard rate turn bank angle (15 to 17 degrees in most GA airplanes).  The photo below illustrates the sight picture of a standard rate turn.   It is a simple fact of IFR flying that steep bank angles are never required. 

Well equipped GA airplanes have many built-in alarms.  Bells sound when the autopilot shuts off, when the gear fails to come down at low RPM settings, and when a stall is imminent. 

I would like to have a horn installed that sounds anytime the bank angle exceeds 20 degrees!

We all know the importance of having a well developed instrument scan.  This includes, of course, always knowing our bank angle!

Practice rudder only turns!

One way to prevent overbanking in IFR conditions is to make rudder only turns.  This can be done in most airplanes without creating excessive yaw.  Try it in yours and see what happens.  Use very gentle toe pressures to produce a standard rate turn.  In a properly rigged airplane, the ball in the inclinometer should remain close to the center of the tube. 

Try it.  It may change the way you fly in IFR conditions!

Most pilots believe that the benefit of having a commercial ticket is that they can be paid to fly.  While true (in part), the real benefit of properly administered commercial training is learning how to fly smoother!

Putting the commercial ticket in perspective, think of primary private training as learning the mechanics of flying.  Think of instrument training as learning to fly solely by reference to the instruments.  Finally, think of commercial training as learning how to fly without spilling the drinks back in seat 38c!

Unfortunately, much of what goes on in the name of commercial training is dedicated to banging through chandelles, Lazy-8s, 8s on Pylons, and steep spirals within PTS standards.  Such a shame!

The proficient pilot (and competent CFI) should always be looking for training scenarios that can save the day should the real event ever happen.  One such scenario not found in the Instrument Practical Test Standards (PTS) is an engine failure while in the clouds!

What do you do? 

We spend a lot of time practicing engine failure emergencies at the primary training level.  Engines are just as likely to fail in the clouds as in VFR conditions, perhaps more so (carburetor or induction icing).  We better have a plan.

Solution: The GPS Descending Spiral

Here's the scenario.  You are cruising along at 11,000 feet in the scud.  Suddenly the engine begins to run rough, then quits.  What do you do? 

The first thing is advise ATC (declare emergency).  Next, pitch to best glide speed, followed by a quick assessment of the problem.  Fuel . . . switch tanks;  fuel boost pump . . . on;  carburetor heat . . . on;  induction air . . . open;  ignition key . . . check on, switch mags.

Next, punch the GPS "nearest" button and, if in glide range, point the airplane in that direction.  Hopefully, you have enough altitude to commence a slow, standard rate turn over top of the selected airport. 

Scale back the GPS moving map to 0.5 to 1.0 miles and center your descending turn over the airport as depicted on the moving map.

Plan your descent rate so that you will reach your key point (the downwind to base turn point) as close to 1,000' AGL as possible.  Hopefully, by this time, you will have broken out of the clouds and can make a visual approach and landing.

This same GPS descent can also be used to make an emergency landing on a highway depicted on your moving map!

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect!

Don't wait for your engine to quit before trying this maneuver.  Instead, practice it every opportunity you can get, both in VFR conditions with a safety pilot, and in actual IFR conditions (with ATC concurrence and clearance).

This maneuver should be included in every IPC given.  Ideally, it should also be included in the Instrument Pilot Practical Test Standards (PTS).  Likely, however, some big alphabet organizations will claim that this maneuver places too great a burden on we pilots (until such time that it can be PROVEN to be effective!)

Everything was looking good for this 800 hour Cessna 172 pilot and passenger.  Arriving a bit slow over the numbers of Runway 8 at the Yuma, NM Airport last September, a sudden gust of wind caused the nose to pitch up. 

The airplane stalled at about 50 feet above the runway surface.  The nose suddenly dropped.  The pilot reported adding "some" power, but it was too little too late. 

The aircraft struck the runway and caught on fire.  The pilot survived.  His passenger died. Click HERE to access the NTSB report.

Why do these kind of accidents continue to happen?

If ever there was a justification for a turbocharged airplane, riding in smooth air high above the clouds is numero uno! 

This is not to suggest that you have to fly up in the flight levels to find smooth air.  On the contrary, the summer fluffies often top out at 10,000 to 11,000 feet.  Do whatever you have to do to get above them!

Typically, summer clouds are formed by radiant heat from the earth's surface rising up and cooling to the dew point temperature.  Upon reaching that temperature, gaseous moisture precipitates out forming clouds. 

As depicted in the illustration above, cruising beneath these clouds can be a very bumpy affair.  While grizzly old pilots might not mind these bumps, their passengers do.  In fact, providing a bumpy ride is the best way to discourage friends and families from flying with you!

One of the sure-fire ways of identifying a proficient pilot is her or her tracking of the taxiway and runway centerline.  Such an easy thing to do, yet many pilots are content to drift all around these yellow and white lines.

Aside from demonstrating bad form, failure to track the centerline, particularly on landing, can lead to bad things happening!

The Infamous Ground Loop!

A ground loop is an uncontrolled turn during ground operation that may occur while taxiing or taking off, but especially during the after-landing roll. 

Careless use of the rudder, an uneven ground surface, or a soft spot that retards one main wheel of the airplane may also cause a swerve.   In any case, the initial swerve tends to make the airplane ground loop, whether it is a tailwheel-type or nosewheel-type.

Nosewheel-type airplanes are somewhat less prone to ground loop than tailwheel-type airplanes.    Since the center of gravity (CG) is located forward of the main landing gear on these airplanes, any time a swerve develops, centrifugal force acting on the CG will tend to stop the swerving action.

Effect of Crosswinds . . .

If the airplane touches down while drifting or in a crab, simply apply aileron toward the high wing.  We call this "leaning into the wind."  Apply opposite rudder to maintain directional control down the runway centerline. 

Brakes should be used to correct for turns or swerves only when the rudder or nosewheel steering is inadequate.  Care with the brakes must be taken to avoid over-controlling and aggravating the situation.

Anytime an airplane is rolling on the ground in a crosswind condition, the upwind wing is receiving a greater force from the wind than the downwind wing. This causes the upwind wing  to rise.  The crosswind also exerts a force on the vertical stabilizer (tail).  This causes the nose to turn into the wind.

When the effects of these two factors are great enough, the downwind wing can strike the ground.

In the event a wing starts to rise during the landing roll, the pilot should immediately apply more aileron pressure toward the high wing (again, leaning into the wind).  He should also continue to maintaining directional control with opposite rudder. 

Interestingly, this is just the opposite of what we are taught to do in a skidding automobile.  In automobiles, we are taught to turn the wheel in the direction of the skid.  In airplanes, we turn the yoke opposite the direction of the skid! 

Forty years ago, long before the 9/11 terrorists attacks, Red Skelton reminded us of the true meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Click HERE for Red Skelton's explanation of The Pledge of Allegiance.  You might want to forward this link to your local school district officials, your local mayor, and to your state and federal representatives.  Be sure to turn your sound on.

Thanks to David Green of Rose Aviation Services, Akron Airport (9G3), NY for sharing this with us.